victoriana

This video turned up three days ago at Livejournal’s Vintage Photographs community (and was promptly taken down–it’s not a photograph). I haven’t yet tracked down the source, but it does appear to be footage of turn of the century Manchester and so I thought it should have a home here.

In 1954, the BBC aired a teleplay of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four that has become legendary. Produced and directed by Rudolph Cartier and scripted by Nigel Kneale, it stars Peter Cushing as Winston Smith. By making the most out of stark studio sets, location shooting in still war-devastated London neighborhoods, and virtuoso performances from Cushing, Donald Pleasance, and Yvonne Mitchell, this adaptation succeeds at being both genuinely disturbing and deeply moving. This version is also striking for its frank treatment of sex, particularly the segment that takes place in Pornosec, and violence. You can download the show in its entirety by navigating to the host of the clip below.